The Oklahoma Sooners concluded a 6-7 dud of a 2024 season with a 21-20 loss against the Navy Midshipmen in Friday’s Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl.
Third-year coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] saw his team take a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, then watched that lead evaporate over the course of the rest of the afternoon. It was another hard moment in a season full of them. OU went 2-6 in SEC play and 4-1 otherwise. Two 6-7 seasons sandwiched around a 10-3 campaign will not get the job done in Norman.
To his credit, Venables has never deflected the blame. He didn’t do it after the loss in Forth Worth either, shouldering responsibility for how the game and the season went in Year 1 in the [autotag]SEC[/autotag].
“Everything falls on me,” Venables said after the loss. “Everything falls at my feet. Really disappointed in myself. I need to be a lot better, and that goes without saying.”
To be clear, that’s the response I want a coach to have at a time like this. It’s a lot better than saying, “We’re close,” or blaming others.
But Venables knows there are big problems within the Oklahoma football program — problems that aren’t being fixed. So, is he the guy to fix those problems and get the program back to the glory days of Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops?
Or is he incapable of turning the program around?
That’s why 2025 is a make-or-break season for Venables and the Sooners.
After admitting his mistake of choosing to promote Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley to replace Jeff Lebby as offensive coordinator, Venables took a risk on 29-year-old [autotag]Ben Arbuckle[/autotag] to run his offense next season.
After missing on Jackson Arnold at the quarterback position, he spent the money to go get Arbuckle’s QB, the top signal-caller available in the portal, [autotag]John Mateer[/autotag].
Venables is banking on these moves (and more) to help him right the ship in a “gotta have it” season.
If the coach can win enough games next year and prove he has things going in the proper direction, he’ll likely get a chance to build on it in 2026.
But if 2025 is more of the same and Venables doesn’t win enough games, he’ll be out and someone else will take the reins of one of college football’s most storied programs.
So, props to Venables for shouldering the blame for a bad season. But his Sooners have had many of the same problems, big or small, throughout his 39 games at the helm. He apparently knows they need to be dealt with. Next season will be all about seeing whether Venables can fix those problems or not.
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